1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a door glass raising and falling apparatus and, in particular, to a door glass raising and falling apparatus suitable for use in a car.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, in a vehicle such as a car, various kinds of door glass raising and falling apparatus for raising and falling a door glass have been proposed and put to practical use.
For example, in JP-A-10-102902 (Related art 1), there is disclosed a structure in which a door glass is slidably supported by front and rear sashes, carrier plates are secured to a pair of front and rear wire-rope moving portions, and the front and rear portions of the door glass are supported by the carrier plates.
Also, in JP-A-11-44151 (Related art 2), there is disclosed a structure in which the front and rear portions of a door glass are respectively supported by a pair of front and rear glass support members which are respectively secured to a pair of front and rear wire-rope moving portions, and the door glass is raised and fallen along a pair of front and rear guide rails which are respectively disposed so as to extend in the vertical direction.
In the door glass raising and falling apparatus according to the related art 1, in a state before the door glass is assembled to the pair of front and rear carrier plates, not only the front and rear carrier plates can be rotated around the axes of their associated wire ropes independently and can be moved relatively freely in the back-and-forth direction of a door as well as in the deep direction of the door, but also the door glass is easy to incline in the vertical direction when the door glass is viewed from the side surface thereof. To assemble the door glass to the front and rear carrier plates in such unstable state, an operator must match the position and attitude of one carrier plate to the door glass before the one carrier plate is assembled to the door glass and, after then, the other carrier plate must be assembled to the door glass similarly, with the result that it takes time and labor to assemble the door glass to the front and rear carrier plates.
On the other hand, in the door glass raising and falling apparatus according to the related art 2, when the door glass rises and falls along the vertically extending guide members, the front and rear end edges of the door glass move in the vertical direction along the front and rear sashes of the door and, therefore, in case where the guide plates-are not arranged parallel to the sashes with accuracy, unfavorably, not only the door glass cannot be raised and fallen smoothly, but also an excessive stress is applied to the door glass. Further, since there are required two fairly long guide members, not only the number of parts is large but also there is a disadvantage in reducing the weight of the door glass raising and falling apparatus.
It is an object of the invention to provide a door glass raising and falling apparatus which is simple in structure and easy to assemble.
In attaining the above object, according to a first aspect of the invention, there is provided a door glass raising and falling apparatus, in which the lower end portion of a door glass is supported by a carrier plate extending in the back-and-forth direction of the door glass, and, by raising and falling the front and rear moving portions of a wire-rope body using a motor, the door glass can be moved in the vertical direction while it is guided along sashes respectively disposed in the front and rear portions of a door. The carrier plate includes a pair of front and rear securing portions respectively formed at given portions thereof. That is, the carrier plate can be mounted on the front and rear moving portions of the wire-rope body in a stable manner through the pair of front and rear securing portions thereof, while assembling of the door glass to the carrier plate is also easy.
Also, according to a second aspect of the invention, there is provided a door glass raising and falling apparatus, in which, to adjust the attitude of a door glass before the screw members disposed in the glass fixing portions of a carrier plate are tightened, the door glass is raised toward an upper sash provided in a door. Since the door glass can be inclined in the vertical direction along the surface of the door glass with the glass support portion of the carrier plate as the fulcrum thereof, at the time when the upper edge of the door glass is pressed against the upper sash, the attitude of the door glass can be adjusted automatically in such a manner that the whole upper edge of the door glass can be contacted uniformly with the upper sash. In this state, by tightening the screw members, the door glass can be fixed to the sash and carrier plate in its normal attitude. In this case, in case where the glass support portion is situated below the center of gravity of the door glass, in the above attitude adjustment, the door glass can be inclined easily with the glass support portion as the fulcrum thereof, thereby being able to facilitate the adjustment of the attitude of the door glass.
Further, according to a third aspect of the invention, there is provided a door glass raising and falling apparatus, in which, when a door glass reaches its bottom dead center, a glass rising and falling body is contacted with rubber stoppers respectively disposed in their associated pulley shafts, so that the glass raising and falling body is made to stop while compressing the rubber stoppers. At the then time, the glass rising and falling body is supported through the rubber stoppers by the pulley shafts. That is, since a power transmission passage for receiving the glass rising and falling body consists substantially only of the pulley shafts, the power transmission passage is very short. And, a force applied in the rubber stopper depressing direction and a force applied in the pulley raising direction, that is, a force for driving the wire-rope body upwardly cancel each other through the pulley shafts, which makes it possible to stop the glass rising and falling body positively.